China’s Qunar to delist from NASDAQ after completing sale to private equity firm

Chinese travel site Qunar is all set to delist from the NASDAQ after it completed its sale to private equity firm Ocean Management.

The deal was first announced last October and today it went through having gained shareholder approval earlier this week. The transaction values Qunar, which is backed by Baidu, at around $4.44 billion. The firm raised $167 million from its IPO in November 2013, but now it is one of number of Chinese businesses to shun U.S. public markets. iQiyi, another company backed by Baidu, decided against a rumored U.S. IPO when it recently took financing, while Alibaba’s Ant Financial looks set to pick China or Hong Kong for its long-awaited listing. Security firm Qihoo delisted from the NYSE in 2015.

The privatization is also the latest in a series of busy developments from the tech companies that dominate China’s online travel space.

Qunar ended its stand-off with rival Ctrip in October 2015 when the duo agreed to a share swap deal, months earlier it had rejected a proposed acquisition from Ctrip in favor of a $500 million capital raise led by investor firm Silver Lake. Truce in place, Ctrip has expanded its reach through a series of deals that included investments in China Eastern Airlines and India’s MakeMyTrip, and the acquisition of travel search firm SkyScanner for $1.74 billion to extend into Europe and other parts of Asia.